On Tuesday, the French Ministry of Culture announced (Google Translate) that it would be canceling the most severe penalty in the entire scheme: disconnecting someone from the Internet. How many times was this penalty actually enforced over the years that Hadopi has been on the books? Exactly once.

In September 2012, a man in Eastern France was convicted of a third strike after downloading unauthorized copies of two Rihanna songs, even though his soon-to-be-ex-wife was the one who admitted in court that she had done it. Frustrated with the entire Hadopi system, the unnamed man from Eastern France voluntarily took his entire household offline. It took until last month for a single user to be fined €600 ($771) and kicked offline for 15 days (Google Translate)—the first time disconnection had been ordered after the many millions of warnings that Hadopi has sent French Internet users. Only a small handful of French users have even made it to strike three.

Since the new administration of President François Hollande, who was elected last year, Hadopi has been on the ropes. Hollande campaigned in part on shutting Hadopi down (mostly), and later his culture minister told a French magazine that Hadopi had “not fulfilled its mission.” The agency's budget was eventually cut.

In its statement (Google Translate) about the change, the Ministry of Culture says that cutting someone off from the Internet is “totally unadapted to our world” and that the new approach illustrates a “change in orientation” for the government’s enforcement measures. Hadopi will now focus more on pirate and unauthorized streaming sites—and less on individual users.

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

Off with you! How dare you come here talking sense? Next you will start with how musicians should be propererly compensated instead of fattening the record companies and decent copyright terms instead of the bastardized versions currently in place. Blasphemy!

The bitter tears of the content industry executives shall flow in a river tonight, only to join the years of sweat from the toil of enacting Hadopi.

Yep, heart bleeds for them. (Playing a violin as I read this article)

If only there were a bunch of organizations that would have told them it wouldnt have worked ora few million people who told them it wouldnt have worked orthe French people rise up and tell them it wouldnt have worked...

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

Although copyright laws needs to fixed, I doubt they can be fixed in a way were dumbasses stops downloading cams or Rihanna songs. They're the kind of people who wouldn't care, or understand, that they could get 5 year old films for free in HD quality, and prefer a shitty cam of a movie because "that's the one that I saw ads for on TV".

Though fortunatly, the people getting busted always (except for porn trolling), always seems to be that segment of the population.

Since the late 90s, crackdowns have been more about the shock factor than anything. Yes, this time we're serious. We're really going to pull the plug on file sharing. Over and over, these efforts have had a huge media lead-up, building them up into something that never materializes. If anything, file sharing explodes ahead of these efforts, as people figure they'd better load up on stuff while they can. Then nothing ever really happens, and it's business as usual. A few low-hanging fruit gets picked, maybe, but even then not much happens.

Makes sense to me. Busting users doesn't make any true impact; it's the distributors that ultimately fuel the situation.

But busting users is easy, they have a known address and contact information; they're right there for the picking. Going after the distributors is hard work; you have to track them down, they're probably not in the same country, etc. Who wants to go to all that trouble?

Who should we blame for letting those cheese-eating surrender monkeys make common sense concessions to their own people, to the detriment of Corporate America? The NSA? The RIAA? The CIA? The MPAA? Come on, who dropped the ball?

I was just talking to my buddy (the main one who actually writes the code for our addons/extensions) and thought I would share his thoughts with you.

According to him the problem with HADOBI is that it was way ahead of its time.

For it to have worked, Sarkozi's wife would have had to sell a million (or ten) albums of her songs that showcases her talent...unfortunately the world has not yet caught on to the fact that listening to a cat screaming while tumbling in a clothes washer and later squeeze dried is good music.

Sarkozi's wife (Carla Bruni), is too, unfortunately way ahead of her time - still does not explain why she married a midget though.

According to him the problem with HADOBI is that it was way ahead of its time.

For it to have worked, Sarkozi's wife would have had to sell a million (or ten) albums of her songs that showcases her talent...unfortunately the world has not yet caught on to the fact that listening to a cat screaming while tumbling in a clothes washer and later squeeze dried is good music.

According to him the problem with HADOBI is that it was way ahead of its time.

For it to have worked, Sarkozi's wife would have had to sell a million (or ten) albums of her songs that showcases her talent...unfortunately the world has not yet caught on to the fact that listening to a cat screaming while tumbling in a clothes washer and later squeeze dried is good music.

Is that before or after Wild Stallions' music changes the universe?

I have a dream. A dream where people are always excellent to each other. A dream where people can party on without discrimination. A dream where someone can play stairway to heaven in a guitar store without facing any wrath. Station.

I don't know why governments and the media industry refused to go after the websites instead of the users in the first place. I think that was the devious plan concocted by eager attorneys who started seeing lots of money in the form of "billable hours" and ended up conning the entertainment industry into suing the individual users since that was something that could never end.

It sounds like France has realized what the problem was and that it should have been going after these torrent and filesharing websites because they are the ones who provided a means by which filesharers could share copyrighted content.

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

That's correct. Now in Washington state and Colorado pot smoking is legal and everyone is happy. No more wars, the government gets more tax money and the causal smoker can relax. Looks like it's getting ready to happen at several more locations also. Happy...Happy...Happy...

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

That's correct. Now in Washington state and Colorado pot smoking is legal and everyone is happy. No more wars, the government gets more tax money and the causal smoker can relax. Looks like it's getting ready to happen at several more locations also. Happy...Happy...Happy...

There's also this pesky problem of some EU nations already declaring Internet access (necessary for interacting with government and the business of daily life) as a human right, or at the very least, a civil right.

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

That's correct. Now in Washington state and Colorado pot smoking is legal and everyone is happy. No more wars, the government gets more tax money and the causal smoker can relax. Looks like it's getting ready to happen at several more locations also. Happy...Happy...Happy...

Is it also legal to have small amounts for personal use?

I moved out of Colorado shortly after I voted in favor of it but If I remember right you can posses up to an ounce on your person and grow up to six plants. Though those restrictions will most likely be cut later as the laws have a chance to mature. One thing to note, it isn't just smoking and possession that is legal in Colorado, retail sale has also been legalized. The framework was already in place from the medical disto laws that were essentially written with forward compatibility for retail sale since everyone knew it was just a matter of time. The idea was to have a licensing and restrictions available for retail sale within a year or so of the passing so they aren't open yet and since I moved I don't know if it has been delayed, but either way in short order there will also be legal shops selling legal weed and edibles just like bars or liquor stores.

According to him the problem with HADOBI is that it was way ahead of its time.

For it to have worked, Sarkozi's wife would have had to sell a million (or ten) albums of her songs that showcases her talent...unfortunately the world has not yet caught on to the fact that listening to a cat screaming while tumbling in a clothes washer and later squeeze dried is good music.

Is that before or after Wild Stallions' music changes the universe?

I have a dream. A dream where people are always excellent to each other. A dream where people can party on without discrimination. A dream where someone can play stairway to heaven in a guitar store without facing any wrath. Station.

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

That's correct. Now in Washington state and Colorado pot smoking is legal and everyone is happy. No more wars, the government gets more tax money and the causal smoker can relax. Looks like it's getting ready to happen at several more locations also. Happy...Happy...Happy...

Is it also legal to have small amounts for personal use?

I moved out of Colorado shortly after I voted in favor of it but If I remember right you can posses up to an ounce on your person and grow up to six plants. Though those restrictions will most likely be cut later as the laws have a chance to mature. One thing to note, it isn't just smoking and possession that is legal in Colorado, retail sale has also been legalized. The framework was already in place from the medical disto laws that were essentially written with forward compatibility for retail sale since everyone knew it was just a matter of time. The idea was to have a licensing and restrictions available for retail sale within a year or so of the passing so they aren't open yet and since I moved I don't know if it has been delayed, but either way in short order there will also be legal shops selling legal weed and edibles just like bars or liquor stores.

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

That's correct. Now in Washington state and Colorado pot smoking is legal and everyone is happy. No more wars, the government gets more tax money and the causal smoker can relax. Looks like it's getting ready to happen at several more locations also. Happy...Happy...Happy...

Colorado legalized pot smoking and gay marriage. Doesn't the Bible say something about if two men sleep together they should be stoned?

How 'bout focusing on making stuff legally and readily available, in a reasonable time frame instead?

Although copyright laws needs to fixed, I doubt they can be fixed in a way were dumbasses stops downloading cams or Rihanna songs. They're the kind of people who wouldn't care, or understand, that they could get 5 year old films for free in HD quality, and prefer a shitty cam of a movie because "that's the one that I saw ads for on TV".

Though fortunatly, the people getting busted always (except for porn trolling), always seems to be that segment of the population.

You can't eliminate it, because a lot of people prefer "free" to legal. But by distributing on a rational basis you could drastically reduce it for minimal costs, compared to enforcement.

I don't know why governments and the media industry refused to go after the websites instead of the users in the first place. I think that was the devious plan concocted by eager attorneys who started seeing lots of money in the form of "billable hours" and ended up conning the entertainment industry into suing the individual users since that was something that could never end.

It's because individual users are much more softer target than companies. Companies usually can mount a better defence for longer period compared to random civilians.

It's also partly a terror tactic. It brings a much more personal message to people if you succesfully sue their peers.